June 2018
Volume 60, No. 3 | Go to abstracts
Articles
Page 299
Building Dialogue on Prison Health: Improving Access to Harm Reduction in Federal Prisons
Emily van der Meulen, Rai Reece, Sandra Ka Hon Chu
Page 314
Response to Building Dialogue on Prison Health: Improving Access to Harm Reduction in Federal Prisons
Jonathan Smith, Henry de Souza
Page 318
Rebuttal to the Correctional Service of Canada’s Response
Emily van der Meulen, Rai Reece, Sandra Ka Hon Chu
Page 321
Culturally Relevant Programming versus the Status Quo: A Meta-analytic Review of the Effectiveness of Treatment of Indigenous Offenders
Leticia Gutierrez, Nick Chadwick, Kayla A. Wanamaker
Page 354
La police face aux outils numériques : pratiques et communication policière sur Twitter lors des manifestations à Montréal
Simone Tuzza, Samuel Tanner, Cassandre Carpentier-Laberge
Page 387
Impacts of Crime Attractors and Generators on Criminality in Montreal
Elodie Demeau, Geneviève Parent
Research Note
Page 413
Will Rogers Is Jenksing Police Response Times
Simon Demers
Abstracts
Building Dialogue on Prison Health: Improving Access to Harm Reduction in Federal Prisons
Emily van der Meulen, Rai Reece, Sandra Ka Hon Chu
Drawing on a qualitative study with former federal prisoners in Ontario and key medical and community professionals from across the country, this commentary aims to build dialogue with the Correctional Service Canada on an essential harm reduction measure in prison, namely, prison needle and syringe programs (PNSPs). Research participants elucidated the main issues and challenges related to the implementation of PNSPs, listing correctional officers and the union that represents them as a central barrier. As the primary front-line workers in the prison setting and the staff with whom prisoners have the most frequent contact, correctional officers play a significant role in the success or failure of these indispensable programs. Yet despite the more than two decades of international evaluations that have demonstrated PNSP effectiveness in improving staff occupational safety, correctional officers and prison services remain resistant.
_____________________________________________
Culturally Relevant Programming versus the Status Quo: A Meta-analytic Review of the Effectiveness of Treatment of Indigenous Offenders
Leticia Gutierrez, Nick Chadwick, Kayla A. Wanamaker
The over-representation of Indigenous peoples in criminal justice systems internationally remains a critical issue. Some have argued that replacing generic services with culturally relevant programming would be an effective strategy to address this problem. This meta-analysis examines the effectiveness of culturally relevant programs for Indigenous offenders compared to conventional programs. Results based on seven studies (N=1,731) indicate Indigenous offenders who participate in these programs have significantly lower odds of recidivism (odds ratio=0.72) compared to Indigenous offenders who participate in generic programs. Although considerable methodological limitations were observed in the studies reviewed, the results of this meta-analysis are consistent with the concept of specific responsivity and the notion that treatment effectiveness is maximized when the learning environment is engaging and relevant. Additional research of higher methodological quality is needed to further evaluate culturally relevant programs and determine with greater confidence how correctional interventions best work for this population.
_____________________________________________
La police face aux outils numériques : pratiques et communication policière sur Twitter lors des manifestations à Montréal
Simone Tuzza, Samuel Tanner, Cassandre Carpentier-Laberge
The use of the media by protesters during demonstrations affects the police force and its response. The new media force the police to update its crowd control strategy. The police’s scope of concern reaches an unprecedented level of exchange, because of the digital dimension adding to the physical one; it now has to take both into account in its crowd management practices. What is the attitude adopted by the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) with regard to the social media? What use does it make of the Twitter microblogging platform during demonstrations? In order to understand how the law enforcement agency uses the potential of this media and how it impacts its communications and practices, a database of 3,909 Twitter messages, dated between September 2012 and June 2015, was created. An analysis of the database shows that the SPVM seeks to establish a direct and egalitarian dialogue with the public, tries to open a specific communication channel with protesters and uses this new medium as a strategic tool.
_____________________________________________
Impacts of Crime Attractors and Generators on Criminality in Montreal
Elodie Demeau, Geneviève Parent
Urban institutions and facilities modulate criminal opportunities by influencing the number and type of people using them. Based on this finding, the present study attempts to assess the effect of several types of facilities, generally identified in the literature as attractors and generators of crime, on assault, theft, robbery, and motor vehicle theft in Montreal. To this end, the number of crimes and different facilities, as well as several socio-demographic indicators, were measured for the 3,195 dissemination areas. Except for laundromats and pawnshops, all the facilities assessed have a significant effect on one or more types of crime. The results obtained, which differ from the results for other North American cities, reject the generalization of such studies in other cities. While these differences could be attributed to dissimilarities at the urban or sociocultural level, it is also plausible that the methodological choices made can be the source of these differences. Limitations and future directions are discussed.
_____________________________________________
Will Rogers Is Jenksing Police Response Times
Simon Demers
Because police jurisdictions typically rely on different call classification schemes and handle a different mix of calls, it is difficult to compare multi-priority police response time distributions between two or more jurisdictions. For the same reasons, it can be challenging to compare response time trends over time, even within a given police jurisdiction. Hypothetical examples illustrate the main analytical challenges. Then, a simple clustering approach, the Jenks natural breaks method, is demonstrated. This approach can be used to objectively compare police response time distributions. The resulting comparisons remain unaffected by differences or changes in call classification rules and cannot be easily manipulated or skewed, either intentionally or inadvertently. Although the discussion is framed within a police context, the proposed analytical approach has the potential to be useful for other emergency services and benchmarking settings.